Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-8-315843 discloses a fuel cell in which gas is supplied to the anode side until the voltage exceeds a prescribed value, and in which supply of electrical power to an external load is started after removing stagnated water.
In the above-noted art, however, because blockage of the anode flow passage is the only cause that is considered for the voltage being below a prescribed value, there are cases in which, for other causes, startup takes time.
When starting up at below the freezing point, there are cases in which the water generated the previous time of operation freezes within the fuel cell and blocks the gas passage within the fuel cell. In this case, because the flow of gas is hindered, the voltage of the fuel cell drops, making it difficult to achieve stable fuel cell operation. For this reason, warm-up requires a long period of time, making it difficult to transition to normal operation quickly.
Even if an attempt is made to determine whether or not there is freezing in the gas flow passage at low temperatures, if there is blockage of the flow passage in only several cells, there is almost no influence on the gas pressure loss. For this reason, it is difficult to determine whether the flow passage is blocked.
If blockage of the flow passage causes further insufficiency in gas supply, there is the problem of generation of a negative voltage. In this case, it is difficult to judge whether the cause of the negative voltage is insufficient supply of anode gas or insufficient supply of cathode gas. In particular in the case in which there is insufficient supply of anode gas, there is the problem of deterioration of the electrolyte membrane, the catalyst layer, or the like by the negative voltage.